Last April an excited Dryden Theatre audience chatted with triple-threat Tom McCarthy — in Hollywood terminology, that’s an actor/writer/director — who took questions while seated on the Dryden stage, after a screening of his acclaimed 2007 film The Visitor.

Tom McCarthy talks to the Dryden audience on April 20, 2009, following a screening of his film “The Visitor.”

McCarthy then hung out after the formal program to talk one-on-one with folks and sign autographs.

On March 7, McCarthy may be onstage at the Kodak Theatre, to receive an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay, for his role in penning the animated film “Up.” Reports say McCarthy is the one credited with mapping out the film’s story, and along with Peter Docter and Bog Peterson is nominated for an Academy Award.

Eastman House will surely be cheering for McCarthy, who since visiting us has donated to the motion picture collection a print of The Visitor, which he wrote and directed. The film earned an Oscar® nomination for lead actor Richard Jenkins. The film and McCarthy are popular with critics: “Best movie I’ve seen so far this year? Hands down, it’s Tom McCarthy’s superb The Visitor,” said Lou Lumenick of The New York Post.

The film was McCarthy’s second feature, following the celebrated The Station Agent in 2003.

Tom McCarthy, left, at Eastman House with Jim Healy, assistant curator of motion pictures, and Marilyn O’Connor (who is proud to also be known as “Philip Seymour Hoffman’s mom”)

And while the “actor” McCarthy, who trained at Yale School of Drama, may get the “Oh, I know that guy” reaction when you see him on screen, or look at the images that accompany this blog (the same reaction Philip Seymour Hoffman got from the masses before Capote), his filmography is lengthy. Since the early 1990s, he’s appeared in more than 20 feature films — including Meet the Parents, Baby Mama, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Flags of Our Fathers — plus several TV shows, notably The Wire.

Tom McCarthy, left, signs autographs at the Dryden.

The UK newspaper The Guardian last week called McCarthy “a Hollywood Renaissance man.” The writer also called him a “a rare talent, and, moreover, one with a habit of veering off in wholly unexpected directions.”

And from the looks of it, McCarthy is headed in one sure direction … “Up.”

Bravo and look good on Oscar® night, from the Eastman House.

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Dresden Engle is the Public Relations Manager for George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.